[wgscott]

Has anyone dealt with etropicals.com? I am eyeing up the cleanup crew. The prices seem a little too good to be true...

[alf3482]

I have ordered from them. Some will say good things. I can not do the same. Iwent for the price, i feel like i know why the price was so cheap. I'm not one to flame to much so i will say i was not pleased. And have not ordered again.

[wgscott]

Oh.

[Big Ed]

I also was disappointed with the customer service I recieved from them. I ordered from them twice, thinking it could have been a fluke the first time, but it wasn't.
You may try FFExpress for a good clean-up crew.
Ed

[MarkS]

You were not here during the eTropicals fiasco.

Let's just say that it was not pretty. The owner, Bill, thinks that since he has been in business for so long that he can run it and it's customer service the way he feels without any loss of business. He is proud of that fact and admitted it here in that thread. I would never do business with him even if he was giving things away.

Needless to say, my opinions of him turned sour when he email me using increadably harsh tones and threats.

Mark

[ronjon]

well, if bill is the same guy i talked to there then all i can say is this...he was such an ass when i was on the phone that i hung up on him. that's the long and the short of it.

rj

[wgscott]

Wow. I had no idea what a can of worms it was that I just re-opened. Anyway, thanks to you all for saving me some money.

Any suggestions where I can get a good cleanup crew? I have about 150 gallons of tanks in total.

[Humilis]

I wish I knew about BBs before I ordered from etropicals. I got extra empty shells in my order and half the crabs were dead

I've used www.premiumaquatics.com for some dry goods, crabs and snails and I was ver pleased.

I also used www.cquarium.com for corals (Acroporas) and clams & I was also very happy.

[Bughead]

I've ordered from premiumaquatics lots of times and have always been pleased with the products, both live and drygoods, and pleased with the customer service.

[JDT]

First off let me say that I am from eTropicals.com. I had been informed this afternoon by a customer of this link and felt the need to respond.

First off the person that MarkS is talking about is Bob not Bill, next I will say that Bob no longer owns any part of eTropicals.com, he sold his share the first of this year. Myself I have been working with eTropicals.com since the first of this year, the main reason I was hired was to help in one of the big problems that eTropicals had and that is Customer Service. Let me also say I know what some of you are talking about, I have taken a lot of phone calls since January just about what has been written. I have tried to the best of my ability to take care of any previous problems any of you might have had with very few questions being asked, the only thing I have done is check to make sure that an order had really been placed, you would be surprised by the number of people who have tried to get a previous problem taken care of who had never ordered from this company. As far as this year goes, I have tried to satisfy any complaints that anyone has had, some I have been successful with some I have not, with all the mail order places now we all make mistakes, and let's try to remember, we are shipping live animals that sometimes just don't make it. To my knowledge I have not refused one person this year on a replacement of a fish or any of our reef critters and I have done that without requiring the customer to return the item for me to verify. Just like every other mail order business, any replacements the customer has to pay for the box and freight charges, if you are willing to pay for that we have shipped the items out if you don't wish to pay for that we have entered into your database the replacement or credit of those items on the next order, we have also sent refund checks to some who never want to do business with us again. We have also replaced entire shipments no matter what the death rate including the box and freight charges.

I have been involved with one other mail order/internet saltwater fish company before starting at eTropicals.com and that was Aquacon, I worked for that company before the current owner that is there now, back when it was one of the first saltwater internet businesses. Obviously I did not stay long after the current owner took over and I don't think I need to state my reasons for leaving if you have read all that is written about that company then I need not explain any more.
I have always tried to take care of my customers even doing things that had not been approved by the company. If I have offended any of your that have dealt with me since the first of this year I apologize, if any of your want to discuss problems you have had in the past please feel free to contact me at etropica@bellsouth.net and I will try to make you happy even if you don't want to do business with us again!

One last thing I don't own any part of this company, I only work here and I have not responded to try to get your business back, if you don't want to do business with us that is your decision, it's your money! I think it only fair that for those who have not ordered from us before that they know a little of the background...yes this company has had a customer service problem, we know that and are hoping that so far this year we have improved and from both phone calls and emails that I have received it seems we have made a lot of people happy.

Thank you,
Jack Taylor

[MarkS]

Thank you Jack for posting that.

You are right, it was Bob. There are only a handfull of names starting with 'B' an I picked the wrong one.

Bob was very arrogent. He seemed to think that shopping at eTropicals was a privilave and shame on anyone who would talk bad about eTropicals. Customers were rarely given refunds, credits or anything good. Almost all customers just got hassles. The die off rate that was reported was much higher than any other MO company and Bob could care less.

I sure hope thing turn for the better there. It would be nice to have another place to shop. However, until I hear of vast improvements, I cannot shop at your company.

Mark

[djheywood]

I have never shopped there, but it is good to hear some positive results from people's bad experiences.

Thanks for keeping us all in the loop.

[wgscott]

Ok, Jack. I'll be the guinea pig since I opened the can of worms. I am about to place an order. I'll let people know how it goes.

[asmith]

Well. I guess I will post and be the one person who has had a good experience with eTropicals. I ordered a cleanup crew from them a little over a year ago and everything came as ordered alive and well. It was my first every online live stock purchase so I was a little nervous. I told them that and they assured me that everthing was going to be ok. Since it was my first time ordering they gave me free box charges on anything I ordered. They also included extra snails and hermits. The only problem that I had was that the crabs have eaten the snails and taken their shells, but I can't blame that on eTropicals. I had a good experience with them even during a time when other customers were having problems. I would not hesitate to order from them again, especially since they have been working on their problems.

Andrew

[wgscott]

see also http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/ultimat...c&f=1&t=025646

[wgscott]

Well, my package of 100 scarlet reef hermits, 150 blue legged hermits and 100 astra snails arrived today (along with some free feather dusters) and the shipping mortality rate looks to be less than 1%. Keep in mind I paid about $140 with shipping for this, so you couldn't even get just the blue-legged hermits alone for that from most other places.

Based on my experience, I would say it looks like these folks have identified a previously existing problem and have dealt with it and solved it. Obviously I can't generalize for everyone's experience, and this clearly wasn't a "blind" trial, but it at the very least proves that these folks are capable of delivering everything alive and well and intact (the shipping container was very carefully packed).

I would definitely recommend them, especially if you need a clean-up crew that won't break the bank.

[JDT]

wgscott,

I am very glad to hear that you have received your package in good order and that you are happy with what was in the box. I am not sure if you counted each of the scarlets, bluelegs and astrea's but we always put extra's in to try to make up for what ever loss happens in transit. I did not tell the shipping department who you were, nor that you were being a "guinea pig," the order they got yesterday morning was the same as anyone else. I do not use the internet order that we get for the shipping department to ship from so they did not see your note to me either. The only thing I requested the shipping department to do was to include the small piece of florida orange ricordia as my way of thanking you for being the "guinea pig" for this test. I want to improve the image that some have of eTropicals.com and to do that EVERY ORDER must be like the one you got, if not I will do what is required to make all customers happy!!!

Again, thanks for your quick responce to your order!
Jack
eTropicals.com

[landescaper]

Originally posted by JDT
you would be surprised by the number of people who have tried to get a previous problem taken care of who had never ordered from this company.

Nope, I'm not surprised at all. School's out.

[MarkS]

Originally posted by landescaper


Nope, I'm not surprised at all. School's out.

LOL! Very true. Sad, but true.

Mark

[wgscott]

To put this into perspective, I am one of the folks around here who enjoys complaining about things more than most people think is healthy. I am very critical about most things to the point of being a churlish geezer, except I am "only" 38. I guess this comse from being a scientist. I am one of those asshole-type bastards that thinks he can do everyone's job better than they can (and I would say at least 75% of the time I am right). Anyway, I recommend etropicals.com without reservation. I should have mentioned that Jack put in a coral too and that also shipped really well.